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THE CENTURY ASSOCIATION'S 

MEMORIAL STATUE OF 

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 



REPORT OF THE MEMORIAL COMMITTEE 



THE CENTURY ASSOCIATION BUILDING 

1911 






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THE CENTURY ASSOCIATION'S 

MEMORIAL STATUE OF 

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 

REPORT OF 
THE MEMORIAL COMMITTEE 

Gentlemen of the Century: 

It may be within the memory of some of you, 
unhappily very few, I fear, that at a meeting of 
our Century Association, when its home, of blessed 
memory, was in Fifteenth Street, and on the evening 
of the second of June, 1883, the following resolu- 
tion was adopted : 

Resolved, That a Committee of three be appointed to receive 
subscriptions, and when sufficient fimds are secured, to take all 
other necessary measures for the erection of a Monumental 
Statue of the late William C. Bryant, on a site to be selected 
by the Committee. 

Though not present at this meeting, I was in- 
formed that I had been designated as chairman of 
it, and John H. Gourhe and Thomas Hicks as my 
associates. 

At my request for an addition to the committee, 
in the following month of December, its number was 



increased to seven by the addition of the names of 
A. Foster Higgins (who afterward, in consequence 
of his business engagements, withdrew) , A. R. Mc- 
Donough, Percy R. Pyne, and H. F. Spaulding. 

I am now prepared to lay before you the com- 
mittee's report, and to announce that the memorial 
statue, for the elevation of which the committee 
was constituted, will be unveiled on the twenty- 
fourth day of October next. 

Unfortunately there is to be no meeting of the 
Century Association of so early a date as this ; and 
as the unveiling is an event which every Centurion 
will desire to witness, I have felt it my duty 
to transmit my report in print, to secure this privi- 
lege to as large a proportion of our Association as 
possible. 

I hardly need say to you that I cheerfully ac- 
cepted the trust imposed upon me by our Associa- 
tion, and proceeded at once to collect the money for 
its execution. In that work I had comparatively 
little difficulty, assisted as I was by Mr. McDon- 
ough, who, in those days, as some of you may re- 
member, practically incarnated the Century. 

I issued a brief circular announcing that no sub- 
scriptions would be received from any member for 
amounts exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars — 
to which step I had been prompted by the receipt of 
a check from Samuel J. Tilden for one thousand 
dollars and another from Percy R. Pyne for five 
hundred dollars. The superfluities of both these 
contributions were promptly declined. 

The money was ready for the monument years 

1^1 






JUL 9 1923 



before our committee could procure a suitable site 
for it, which we sought in vain in the Central Park 
for years. Meantime our application had become 
complicated with local poUtics. The friends of 
William M. Tweed, in the halcyon days of his ca- 
reer, took it into their heads that he deserved a 
monument, and they set on foot a scheme to erect 
one for him in the Central Park. 

The Park Commission were happily inspired by 
this movement promptly to adopt a rule that no 
monuments of the living should be erected in the 
public parks. To the Evening Posfs unrelenting 
criticism of Tweed and of his allies during Mr. 
Bryant's life, and its vigorous advocacy of the law 
which kept the monuments of living men out of the 
park, I attributed to no inconsiderable degree the 
insensibility to our appeals for a site for a memorial 
of Mr. Bryant. 

In 1884, and in contemplation of the removal of 
the Reservoir from the Fifth Avenue, I applied to 
Salem H. Wales, a warm personal friend, who, with 
John D. Crimmins and William L. Olhffe, were the 
Commissioners of Public Parks, to give the name 
of Bryant Park to what had been known as Reser- 
voir Square. The records of the Park Commission- 
ers inform us that on May 21, 1884, at a meeting of 
these commissioners, the following resolution was 
offered by Commissioner Wales, and adopted: 

Resolved, That under the provisions of Section 1, Chapter 
282, of the laws of 1884, the public park situated between 
Fortieth and Forty-second Streets, Fifth and Sixth Avenues, 
shall hereafter be known and described as Bryant Park. 



The following remarks were then made on the 
resolution by Commissioner Wales, and the same 
were entered upon the minutes : 

In response to the request urged by the friends of the late 
William Cullen Bryant, the Legislature has authorized the 
Department of Parks to change the name of Reservoir Square 
to Bryant Park, and in moving this resolution, I deem it fitting 
to say that the act is a graceful recognition of one who was 
alike eminent for his public and private virtues. 

The city has no possessions more precious than the mem- 
ory of those who, by their labors and example, have exalted 
the standard of citizenship. In these respects Mr. Bryant was 
a conspicuous illustration, and as the editor of a leading daily 
journal, he contributed largely toward securing for the city the 
Central Park, in which he always took the warmest interest. 

It gives me pleasure to move this resolution, and I have 
no doubt it will receive the unanimous approval of this Board.- 

Its approval was unanimous. 

This was the first official honor, so far as I am 
aware, ever paid by our city to the memory of Mr. 
Bryant, whom its press pretty unanimously ac- 
claimed at his death as the City's Greatest Citizen. 

I am happy to add here that the act under which 
the Park Commissioners were empowered to offer 
this handsome tribute to the memory of Mr. Bryant 
was introduced into the State Senate by a Cen- 
turion, the late Hampden Robb, whose demise we 
have been called upon so recently to deplore. In 
the Assembly the bill was handled by Hon. James 
Oliver, and it passed both houses without a dissent- 
ing voice. 

It was not till 1895 that I thought our oppor- 



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tunity for a suitable memorial site had arrived. The 
city authorities wished to appropriate the ground 
occupied by the City Hall for a municipal structure 
of sufficient capacity to acconmiodate all the offices 
of the municipal government, and for that purpose 
procured from the Legislature authority to remove 
the City Hall to occupy the place of the Reservoir, 
providing it was so reproduced as to present its 
original external appearance, stone for stone. As 
there was a very strong popular opposition to the 
disturbance of the City Hall, it occurred to me that 
the city government would be grateful for a lubrica- 
tor to their scheme. I accordingly called promptly 
upon the mayor, Gilroy, and told him that the site 
of the Reservoir was an ideal place for the Tilden 
Library, and that its trustees would gladly accept 
it for such a purpose if the city would do what the 
law required it to do, transport the building as it 
stood to the Reservoir Park. Mr. Gilroy was de- 
hghted with the suggestion, and urged me to com- 
mend the idea to the Herald newspaper. 

I took what at that stage of the game I thought 
a wiser course. I asked my friend Ernest Flagg, 
an architect of distinction, to give us a drawing of 
the City Hall as it would appear on the site of the 
Reservoir, while I should write a magazine article 
to explain at length the value of the City Hall as an 
ornament to the city when translated to the Reser- 
voir site; how central it was for a library between 
the Fourth and Sixth Avenue railroads, that com- 
municated with all parts of the continent; and of its 
numerous other advantages, real or imaginary. 



The article appeared with many illustrations in 
Scribner's Monthly in November, 1892. The ideas 
presented in it received unqualified approval from 
the press; and so far as I was competent to judge, 
the public appeared pretty much reconciled to have 
the City Hall removed for such a purpose. 

Fortunately for the Tilden Library, and eke for 
the city, the Legislature the following winter re- 
pealed the law authorizing the removal of the City 
Hall, at the instance and request of those who had 
asked its enactment, I presume, because the build- 
ing they proposed to construct for the accommoda- 
tion of the city offices would involve an expense 
beyond the available resources of the city at that 
time. So that scheme, from which I had so much 
hope, temporarily fell through. But the impression 
which the pictiu-es of Mr. Flagg had made upon the 
public mind in the city of New York, and the idea 
of having a public hbrary in the place of the Reser- 
voir on the Fifth Avenue, were destined to bear bet- 
ter fruit. 

Almost simultaneously with the collapse of the 
municipal scheme, it occurred to the trustees of the 
Astor and the Lenox libraries, who were getting 
tired of struggling with their limited resources re- 
spectively, that if they had with their books the 
library of Mr. Tilden, and the two and a quarter 
millions of his bequest then in the hands of his ex- 
ecutors added to their own revenue, it would be a 
good thing for all parties. So it seemed to those 
who had any voice in the decision of the matter ; and 
promptly application was made to the Legislature 

ITS] 



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for the consolidation of the libraries, followed by 
the municipal legislation necessary to provide for 
their habitation on the very site of the old Reser- 
voir. Public sentiment was so ripe at this time for 
such a proposition, that not a single word but of 
commendation was uttered in any quarter at the 
appropriation of Reservoir Square to the use of the 
consohdated New York Public Library, Astor, 
Lenox, and Tilden Foundation, leaving the sacro- 
sanct walls of the City Hall still standing where 
they were originally planted. 

The consoHdation of the New York Pubhc Li- 
brary in 1896 and the construction of a palace for 
its properties by the city, furnished the city authori- 
ties another occasion to pay an official compliment 
to the memory of Mr. Bryant. We apphed to the 
Park Commission to give us a site for the Century's 
monument to Mr. Bryant on the esplanade imme- 
diately adjoining the west front of the New York 
Public Library and in the very park which bore his 
name. On the appHcation of Hon. Henry Smith, 
then President of the Park Commission, the site of 
the Bryant monument on the esplanade behind the 
Public Library, along with the preliminary plans, 
was approved also by the Art Commission by the 
adoption of the following resolution: 

On February 16, 1909: 

Resolved, That the Art Commission hereby approves the de- 
signs and location of a statue of William CuUen Bryant to be 
placed in the rear of the New York Public Library, repre- 
sented by Exhibits "S90 A/' "390 B," and "SQO C" of record 
in this matter; and that the action of the Commission be certi- 

1^1 



fied, with return of duplicates of Exhibits herein noted, to 
Hon. Henry Smith, Commissioner of Parks for the Boroughs 
of Manhattan and Richmond. 

Again, February 14, 1911: 

Resolved, That the Art Commission hereby approves the de- 
signs and location of a statue of William Cullen Bryant to be 
placed in the rear of the New York Public Library, repre- 
sented by Exhibits "390 D," "390 E," and "390 F" of record 
in this matter. 

The moment we felt sure of such an eminently 
eligible site for the Century's memorial monument 
of its former President, we set about the selection 
of an artist to do the work. We were fortunate 
enough at last to secure the service of Mr. Herbert 
Adams, an honored member of our Association, for 
that purpose. 

Early in June last, Mr. Adams notified me that 
his statue of Mr. Bryant was finished and awaited 
the orders of our committee. 

On the seventeenth of June, and with the con- 
currence of Mr. Rives, my only surviving colleague 
on the memorial committee, I addressed the follow- 
ing letter to the Reverend Henry van Dyke : 



CIO] 



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Erratum, page 10, last paragraph : 

The names of Wm. W. Appleton and Moses Taylor 
Pyne, the treasurer of our committee, were over- 
looked by me in enumerating its surviving members. 



THE SQUIRRELS 

HIGHLAND FALLS ON HUDSON, N. Y. 



June 17, 1911. 
My dear Dr, van Dyke: 

Shortly after the death of William Cullen 
Bryant, in 1878, the Century Association, of which 
he was President, appointed a committee, of which 
I was designated, as chairman, to invite subscrip- 
tions for the erection of a monument to his mem- 
ory. Though not present at the meeting of the 
Century when this resolution was passed, I accepted 
the trust and proceeded in the usual way to look for 
the money. It came sooner than a site for the monu- 
ment acceptable to the committee. Years elapsed. 
Members of the coromittee, one after the other, 
were called away by death. The survivors mur- 
mured, for none of them was wise enough to know 
how providential was the delay, through which 
alone we have been enabled to secure a site in the 
park that bears Mr. Bryant's name — on the west 
elevation of the New York Public Library. 

I am the only member of the original committee 
still living, and I believe Mr. George L. Rives is 
the only surviving member added to the original 
committee. A few weeks ago Mr. Herbert Adams, 
who was selected to prepare the monument, in- 
formed me by letter that the work was finished, had 
received the approval of all the members of the fam- 
ily, and he would be ready to dehver it to order. As 
Mr. Rives was one of my colleagues on the New 

en] 



York Public Library Board of Trustees, and as this 
monument was to be erected on the esplanade to the 
west of the library, and as I was a prisoner of hope 
in the hands of a doctor at the time when the next 
meeting of the trustees of the library was approach- 
ing, I wrote him that I thought the fittest person 
in the world to speak posterity's opinion of Wil- 
ham Cullen Bryant was the Reverend Henry van 
Dyke; and that I recommended his selection to be 
considered by the board at its approaching meeting. 
I inclose a copy of Mr. R.'s reply, by which you will 
see why I address you personally and as chairman 
of the Century committee, and why I look forward 
with confidence to its giving you pleasure to put 
forth to the world your mature and deliberate judg- 
ment about one whom I regard as still America's 
greatest poet, and whose memory I cherish as that 
of a most valued friend. 

I am still on my back, though I feel that I am 
more rapidly convalescing than I had any good 
reason to expect to be, and I call your attention to 
the parties designated by Mr. Rives as the public 
body to be consulted in regard to whatever exer- 
cises are deemed appropriate for the occasion. At 
the same time, if you can find it convenient to con- 
fer with Mr. Rives himself in regard to the cere- 
monial, it will answer as well as if you conferred 
with me. 

Of course the time will be at your choice, but 
there is no occasion to hurry the ceremonial until 
you are ready and such of the audience as you 
would desire to have shall have returned to the city. 

1:12] 



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Please let me know at your early convenience that 
the task I am trjdng to impose upon you is a wel- 
come and congenial one. To diminish that task as 
far as is in my power, I send you an order on 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for a copy of Bigelow's 
"Life of Bryant," which you probably have never 
seen, and in which you will find what intimate rela- 
tions as a business associate and friend during the 
last quarter-century of his life seemed to me then 
most worthy of the interest and attention of the 
public. 

Of course all these arrangements are subject to 
the approval of the Park Commission, of whose 
concurrence, however, I have no doubt. 

Yours sincerely, 

John Bigelow, 

Chairman. 

Two or three days later I addressed the follow- 
ing letter to W. Stover, President of the Park 
Commission, upon whose cooperation we were de- 
pendent. 



THE SQUIRRELS 

HIGHLAND FALLS ON HUDSON 

June 19, 1911. 
Dear Mr. Stover: 

I presume that you have received notice, as I 
have, from Mr. Herbert Adams, that he is ready to 

D3] 



deliver the statue of Mr. Bryant ordered by the 
Century Association whenever your board is ready 
to receive it. My colleague on the committee of the 
Century Association, Mr. Rives, and myself, are, I 
understand, the only survivors of that committee. 
In conference with him we have concluded that, 
with the approval of yoiu* board, we would desire 
the Reverend Henry van Dyke to be selected as the 
orator for the occasion, leaving him to name the time 
when it will be convenient for him to be ready, if 
he should be pleased to accept our invitation, — as I 
do not much doubt he will be. If you contemplate 
any other exercises or ceremonial on the occasion, 
I shall ask Mr. Rives to confer with you, and what- 
ever you can agree upon is quite sure to suit me. 
For my own part, the address of Dr. van Dyke is 
all, I think, that would be necessary, so far as the 
Century Association is concerned, and the more 
time given to him for the purpose the more satisfac- 
tory would probably be the result to the public. 

I can conceive of no special reason for haste, and 
it has occurred to me that it would be more conve- 
nient and satisfactory to all interested to defer the 
unveiling of the statue until any time in October 
that may be agreeable to your board, and when the 
members of the Century Association are likely for 
the most part to be in town. 

I shall ask Mr. Rives to consult with you on these 
subjects, for, though convalescing daily, I cannot 
yet foresee the time when I shall be strong enough 
to visit New York again. 

With this mail I shall communicate my wishes to 



F'y-^i 



Dr. van Dyke, and will lose no time in notifying 
you of the answer I receive from him. 

Yom^s truly, 

John Bigelow, 

Chairman. 



On the tenth of July I received the following let- 
ter from the Reverend Mr. van Dyke : 



FIRWOOD 

SEAL HARBOR, MAINE 



July 9, 1911. 

Dear Mr, Bigelow: 

Returning from my salmon-fishing in Canada, I 
found here last night yoiu* welcome letter of June 
17, — doubly welcome because it brings assurance 
that "Richard is himself again," even though he 
says he is "still on his back." I thought of you 
often during your illness, and had a strong impulse 
to write to you, but hesitated to intrude with only a 
message of affection, — for all I had to say was that 
we love you and want you to get well. You see, the 
world is growing old so fast, and energetic young 
men are so rare, that we can't afford to spare you. 
It is true that you have learned how to gain more 
while on your back than most men do while on their 
feet: you are a disciple of Sleep,— 



the wise and gentle nurse who lifts 
The soul grown weary of the waking world 

And lays it, with its troubled thoughts all still. 
Its questions quiet, and its passions furled, 

On the deep bosom of the Eternal Will, — 

but even so, I heartily wish you up and about soon 
again. 

It is gratifying that you should think of me in 
connection with the address of dedication at the 
unveiling of the Bryant statue. There are other 
men who could do it better,— you above all. And if 
you are well and strong enough, — as I hope you 
will be, — you simply must perform this duty. 
Think what it would mean to us all, to hear you, his 
biographer and friend, speak of this lofty poet and 
noble citizen. But if you wish me to hold myself 
ready as your "understudy," I will gladly do so. 
The time of the dedication would best be late in 
October or early in November: the former for an 
out-of-door service, the latter if the "exercises" are 
to be indoors. 

Your "Life of Bryant" helped me greatly in the 
preparation of my lecture on the poet, at the Sor- 
bonne. But the book is now shut up in my hbrary 
at Avalon, so I shall gratefully avail myself of your 
kind order for another copy which H. M. & Co. will 
send directly here. But my first choice is for you to (^ 
make the address, and my second choice is for you 
to write it and let me read it. 

As ever. 

Faithfully yours, 

Henry van Dyke. 

CIS] 



To this letter I sent the following acknowledg- 
ment: 



THE SQUIRRELS 

HIGHLAND FALLS ON HUDSON 

July 12, 1911. 
My dear Dr. van Dyke: 

I was made very happy last evening by the re- 
ceipt of yom* favor of the ninth inst. assuring me 
that we could rely upon you to make the Bryant 
speech at the unveiling of his statue on the twenty- 
fourth of October. What you say of my dehvering 
this address is, of course, very amiable and lovely on 
your part, but aside from other considerations, I 
delivered a memorial address before the Century 
shortly after Mr. Bryant's death, and also subse- 
quently wrote a biography of Mr. Bryant at the 
request of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. of Boston, in 
which I attempted to tell the public all that I could 
be presumed to know of the poet from my long and 
intimate association with him during the last quar- 
ter-century of his life. It would be very unbecom- 
ing in me, by appropriating this occasion to myself, 
to imply that I am the only one who appreciates his 
merit as a poet, and the only one who is concerned 
for his fame ; and I esteem myself peculiarly fortu- 
nate in securing for this occasion a person so much 
more competent than myself or anybody else of 
my acquaintance to express posterity's opinion of 
America's earliest and, in my judgment, still our 



greatest poet. The nation will listen with breath- 
less interest to what you will say ex-cathedra of Mr. 
Bryant, and I sincerely hope I may by that time be 
well enough to be one of your audience. 

You are aware that this statue is erected at the 
expense of members of the Century Association, 
but the statue will be sheltered in the Bryant Park 
at the expense of the city, and if there are any con- 
ditions for which you would like special provision 
made, I hope you will conmiunicate them to Mr. 
Stover, the President of the Park Commission, or to 
Mr. George L. Rives, my associate committeeman. 
I hope also you will find it convenient to call at the 
studio of Mr. Adams to see whether you can suggest 
any improvement to his work, to which all the sur- 
viving members of the poet's family have given, I 
am told, their unanimous approval. 

Your greatly obliged and faithful friend, 

John Bigelow. 

Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke, 
Firwood, Seal Harbor, Maine. 

On the thirty-first of July Mr. Adams sent me a 
note, of which the following is an interesting ex- 
tract: 

''I saw the bronze the other day and I am very 
much pleased with the cast. It is in one piece, 
which is quite unusual for a work of this size and 
intricacy. It is a remarkably perfect cast — sharp, 
clean, and without spongy places or tin spots, — de- 
fects which are liable to arise, even with the best of 

D83 



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intentions on every one's part. It was cast by the 
Gorham Co. at Providence. Their works are quite 
out of the city, with extensive grounds all about 
them. Now that the statue is not to be set in place 
for a few months, I am having the clean bronze set 
up out-of-doors, in the hope that the elements, with 
a little assistance, will make us a better patina than 
we ordinarily can produce by the use of chemicals— 
yes, alas, — sometimes pigment, too, when the work 
has to be given to the public as soon as it is out of 
the foundry." 

My friends and fellow Centurions, I have now the 
privilege and the honor to invite you all to witness 
the ceremony of the unveiling of the statue of Mr. 
Bryant on the twenty- fourth of October, at an hour 
and place of which you will be duly notified by our 
secretary. I hope you will all make a conscien- 
tious effort to be present. For permit me to remind 
you that this Anno Domini 1911 should be re- 
garded as the Jubilee year of the Century, for it 
connates especially notable civic honors bestowed 
upon two of our most renowned deceased members. 
First was the formal association of Mr. Tilden as 
one of the founders of the New York Public Li- 
brary and a structure for it which for the purpose 
contemplated can hardly be said to have any supe- 
rior if an equal in any other country. 

Second, the erection of a monumental statue of 
the Father of American Poetry, WilHam CuUen 
Bryant, one of the founders as well as one of the 
presidents of oiu* Association. 

D9n 



This statue of Mr. Bryant will occupy the place 
of honor on the west center of the New York Public 
Library in the park which bears the poet's name. 

Mr. Tilden and Mr. Bryant were intimate friends 
during more than the last half of their lives, and 
nothing could be more fitting than the proximity 
of their respective and most enduring civic monu- 
ments. 

John Bigelow, 

Chairman. 



t:203 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




015 775 331 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 




015 775 331 9 # 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



